Chapter 29: The Competition Between Freshmen and Seniors

"How is this possible?"

The harder that man struggled, the tighter the threads coiled around him. In the next second, an arrow shot toward the direction of his face and stopped just two centimeters before him. After that, he lost consciousness.

When he opened his eyes again, he noticed that he was already back in the forest. Before he could even breathe a sigh of relief, he realized that the threads were still wrapped tightly around his body. He quickly looked around and found that his other four companions were also tied to a tree on the other side.

One of the men noticed that he had awakened, and immediately cried out, "Boss, you’re really awake! Hurry up and take care of them so that they can release us!"

That man: "...?"

His voice immediately caught the attention of Jiang Zihan and Mo Shiyan, who were originally grilling the fish that they had just caught. Jiang Zihan handed the grilled fish over to Mo Shiyan while walking toward them. "Awake? That was a bit earlier than I thought."

"What exactly do you want from us?" the team leader asked.

"Nothing much. I just need you to tell us why you attacked us," Jiang Zihan replied, holding Mo Shiyan’s arrow in his hand. "That should be an easy question, am I right?"

"Don’t even think—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Jiang Zihan flicked his wrist, and the arrow shot out with lightning speed. The team leader instinctively closed his eyes when the arrow shot past his right ear and then embedded itself deep into the trunk of the tree behind him. In the next second, the tree trunk was cut in half and crashed to the ground behind him.

The whole team: "!!!"

"Oh, sorry about that~ that was an accident," Jiang Zihan gasped out loud as he took another arrow from Mo Shiyan’s hands and played it in his hands. "But this time... I’m not sure if I could still get a firm grip on it."

"I-I’ll talk! I’ll tell you everything!" the team leader shouted immediately, his voice trembling.

A light smile appeared on Jiang Zihan’s face. He gave a light clap of his hands before asking in a gentle tone. "So... I’ll ask again. Who are you? And why did you attack us?"

"We... We are also students of the Interstellar Ice Hunting Academy, but we are senior students." He swallowed nervously as he watched the arrow in Jiang Zihan’s hand, and instinctively quickened his pace. "Whenever a new class enrolls, the academy sends seniors like us to ambush them to test the freshmen’s abilities. For every freshman we ’eliminate’, we’re awarded 150 Ice Points."

"Ice Points are extremely difficult to earn at the academy, and this mission has always been the best way for seniors to earn Ice Points. We had to go through a lot of competitions with other senior teams just to get this mission," he continued, his voice lowered when he recalled those past memories.

"I see..." Jiang Zihan narrowed his eyes a little, his expression calm, as though they were just having a casual conversation. "Then... Can you explain to me what the Ice Points are for? Why are you guys so crazy about it?"

"Ice Points could basically be used for anything at the academy. Whether it’s using the training rooms, learning advanced combat techniques, receiving one-on-one instructor guidance, or gaining access to special missions, these all require Ice Points. Especially for freshmen, when they arrange your dorm based on the amount of Ice Points you have."

"If you do not have any Ice Points, then you won’t be able to access any of these resources at the academy," he continued to speak with a bitter smile. "For students who relied solely on the monthly Ice Point provided by the school, they couldn’t even fill their stomachs."

Jiang Zihan nodded thoughtfully. "It looks like Ice Points are the most important item in the academy. Are there other ways to earn them?"

"Completing missions... the fastest way to earn Ice Points is to complete missions. The higher the mission rank, the more Ice Points there are. Correspondingly, the higher the difficulty of the missions are."

"The other way is to make it onto the academy rankings. Every six months, the academy would hold a major tournament, and the rankings are determined by the results. Anyone who places on the academy leaderboard could receive a decent amount of Ice Points every month," he explained.

"How many senior teams were assigned to target the freshmen this year?" Jiang Zihan continued to ask.

"There were a total of twelve teams."

"Twelve?"

"The academy divided the freshmen’s landing zones into different training fields, in which each senior team is responsible for one training field."

"You mean that the forest we are in right now... is a large training field?" Jiang Zihan asked in disbelief.

The senior nodded.

"Are there any limits for the seniors?"

"Not really, as it’s usually only the competition between freshmen and seniors. However, the academy wouldn’t stop the senior teams from going to other training fields, so sometimes there would be two senior teams who ended up fighting one another in order to steal the Ice Points the other team has earned."

"Which team is the strongest?"

This time, the senior hesitated, no longer willing to answer his question. However, seeing the arrow in Jiang Zihan’s hand, he still answered honestly at last. "Among all the teams, there are two of the strongest ones—the First Team and the Fifth Team. They were basically built by the seniors who were on the academy rankings."

"The captain of the First Team is Ling Mengyao, a B-Rank Hunter, currently ranked 56th in the academy. The captain of the Fifth Team is Chu Linyuan, an A-Rank Hunter, ranked 37th on the academy rankings. The other ten team captains, including myself... were more or less on the same level."

After explaining everything in detail, the senior quickly struggled, wanting to break free. "I have told you everything; can you let go of me now?" he asked anxiously.